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Discoverers

In English this week we have been doing some drama. First of all the children acted out the part in ‘Stone Age Boy’ when the boy meets the girl from the Stone Age for the first time. We then worked in groups to create freeze frames of different parts of the story.

We have been hard at work this week creating 3 new class displays. We wrote our dreams on dream jars for our school values display. After reading the book ‘The Huge Bag of Worries’ we did some fantastic writing to go on our display in the hall. Then we made some great predictions about our new class book ‘Stonw Age Boy’. I’m sue you will agree that they look amazing.

Discoverers were set a challenge today to find letters in our classroom and outdoor area then work as a team to make as many words as they could. The longest word made by one of the groups was the nine letter word- therapist. I was amazed at all the words they came up with and the super spelling.

Wow! What an amazing first few days we have had in Discoverers Class. The children have all settled in really well and have shown great gem work and resilience in some of the fun activities we have been doing. We came up with our class rules and promises to each other, built towers out of marshmallows and cocktail sticks and had a scavenger hunt.

For the Coronation Mrs Hunter challenged all of the classes to make a crown fit for a King. Take a look at our crown and the children going down the catwalk to show the rest of the school. I’m sure you will agree that it looks fantastic!

In maths this week we have been learning all about money and how to make different amounts.

In Science we have been learning all about shadows and how they are formed. We used the shadow puppet theatres that we had made to investigate how the size of a shadow can change. 

We went outside this morning to see what we could see in the school grounds. We found a box on the field. This inspired us to write some amazing poems called “What’s Inside the Box”.

In Design and Technology we have been designing and making a wind-powered toy car. We even got chance to test them out and race them outside today. They all worked really well.

We had great fun today doing the sponsored bunny bounce!

In Geography we have been learning all about the features of a river. We made our own river models out of salt dough. We then painted them and labelled the features. We are all really proud of the finished models.

We had great fun playing with Explorers’ Class in the snow.

Music

This half term the musical genre we are focusing on is disco, we have all been feeling the groove adding disco moves and actions to help us learn our performance song ‘Bringing us together’. This is the very start of our musical disco journey but we are already having lots of fun. We have asked the children to find some more examples of disco moves to share next week so please share your best moves to be included in our final performance 💃🏼🕺🏽

We had a great day on World Boksburg Day. We wrote poems based on the poem ‘10 things found in a Wizard’s Pocket’ by Ian McMillan. We even got to have our lunch as a treat in the classroom. 

Bollywood Dancing

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In PE we have been dancing in the style of Bollywood. The children have really enjoyed learning this new style of dance and have created some fantastic routines using the moves we learnt together.

In maths this week we ended our topic on 2D and 3D shapes by using the big mat and finding the coordinates of the various shapes.

Recipe for a Wolf

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We have been writing poems this week by creating a recipe for a wolf.

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R.E.

Discoverers have been exploring the Christian belief on the Trinity. The belief in one God but also in three different ways of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They have looked at different representations of this idea using an egg and an apple.

In science we have been investigating how shadows are formed and the type of object that make the clearest shadow. We found out that opaque objects make the best shadows, translucent objects make a pale shadow but transparent objects don’t make very clear shadows at all. 

In maths this week we have been dividing

We created lots of different artwork in the style of Wassily Kandinsky this week in art. We listened to music to inspire us just like he did.

We have been continuing to explore the Samba instruments and learning to play as an ensemble. We have had to listen carefully to the leader’s whistle that instructs us how to play and anticipate when to play our instruments. We have been learning simple Samba rhythms and having lots of fun.

Samba fun

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In art today we have been looking at the artist Leonardo de Vinci. We concentrated on the skill of sketching that we learnt about in our art masterclass last week. We found out that Leonardo da Vinci was interested in anatomy and the human form. We then used wooden mannequins to help us sketch the outline of a person.

This week we have been writing a newspaper report about the tiger in the woods. To help us do this we created a class newspaper report based on another strange creature that was spotted in the woods. We used Talk for writing to orally perform our class model piece. Use the bar code below to watch us perform it. Can you guess who the strange creature is. 

We have been learning all about Samba music and how to play different Samba instruments; samba drums, guiros, agogo bells and tambours. We have been learning to play different rhythms and anticipating when to play listening to the leader who sets the tempo of the music. 

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What amazing afternoon we had in Hopwood Woods. We found evidence of the missing tiger from Blackpool Zoo in the woods. There was orange and black stripy fur in the branches of the trees and we also found a small amount of green fur. We are hoping that the tiger is not too sick and that we can catch her before all of her stripes turn green! We made humane traps in groups to hopefully lure the tiger then capture her safely so that the zookeeper can take her back to the zoo. Each group made a unique trap with lots of amazing features. Watch this space to see if they work.

We had a special visitor today. Zara the zookeeper from Blackpool Zoo told us that one of her tigers had escaped whilst being transported to London. She wanted to know if we had seen her missing tiger called Alyona. We told her that we think that Alyona came to our classroom over the weekend because when we came to school on a Monday our classroom was messed up and there were giant muddy paw prints everywhere. The zookeeper was very worried about the tiger when we said what she had eaten and thinks she may get sick. She even things her stripes may turn green! She has asked us to help her.  She wants us to make some ‘LOST’ posters. She also asked us to go to Hopwood Woods (where we think she may be hiding) to make some humane traps. She told us not to be afraid of Alyona because  she is a very friendly tiger who is probably very scared.

Today in computing we took part in the BUPA Get With the Programme completing a coding activity. We had to design and write an algorithm to get a robot to pack up healthy lunch nags in time for lunch. We had great fun doing it and faced a few challenges along the way making us re-think and debug our algorithms:

This morning when Discoverers’ came into their classroom they were shocked by what they saw. There was lots of empty food packets everywhere, an empty teapot, empty cans of Daddy”s beer and giant paw prints on the floor near the door. When they looked even closer they also found paw prints on the tables and on the side of the sink! We also couldn’t fill our water bottles because there was no water left in the taps! Immediately We all thought that it must have been the tiger. Later on Mrs Worsley in the office confirmed our suspicions by finding footage on the security cameras of the tiger caught in the act. We then wrote eye witness statements describing what we had found to inform the local police. 

First week back in Discoverers”Class

 

Wow what a week we have had! We have had lots of fun this week getting to know our new class. I have been really impressed with your growth mindsets and how well you have all worked in different teams. We ended the week with a scavenger hunt in the classroom and our outside area. I can see that this year you are all going to be fantastic learners. 

Welcome back Discoverers' Class!

 

I hope that you have all had a fantastic summer, I certainly have.  I am really looking forward to seeing yo all again on Monday morning.  We have lots of exciting thing to look forward to this term and in the year ahead.  I can't wait to see you smiley faces and hear your laughter filling my classroom. Myself, Mrs Taylor, Miss Smith and Miss Jones have been working hard to get our classroom ready for you all and planning some fun activities for us to do.  

 

See you all very soon

 

Mrs Howarth

EYFS & KS1 had a fantastic beach day. We had lots of fun playing in the pool and enjoyed eating our fruit ice lollies we made yesterday!

Discoverers’ Class had an amazing day today enjoying their end of year treat on the inflatable. I don’t know who loved it more the children or Mrs Howarth! 

In Design and Technology this half term we have been learning all about structures and how to make them stable and strong. We have designed a bridge in groups using a running bond. Have a look at some of the bridges we made following our designs using sugar cubes.

We made Anzac biscuits just like the ones in Possum Magic. We worked well together to follow the instructions then after making them we wrote our own instructions.

Today in science we have been learning all about soil. Mrs Worsley gave us a problem to solve. She has been asked to plant some plants in the school grounds but she doesn’t know which area to plant them in. There are lots of different types of soil in our grounds and she needed to know which would. Be best for planting. First of all we looked closely at some soil samples to see what we could see. We found out the soil is made up of lots of different things and that without it there would be no life on planet earth. Who would have thought that soil could be so amazing, we then found out about the different layers of soil and the different types. Finally we conducted an experiment to find out which soil type was the most permeable. We found out that the clay soil was impermeable so wouldn’t be good for planting as the water did not drain well. The Sandy soil was the most permeable as nearly all the water drained through very quickly. The loam soil drained well too and it also absorbed quite a lot of the water which we thought would be good for planting as they need the water to drain well and they need to absorb a lot of water. Discoverers worked well to ensure that they carried out a fair test and record their findings.

As part of our World Book Day celebrations we took part in a whole school book swap. Discoverers Class loved choosing their new books. It was great to hear the children recommending books to each other.

We had a fantastic time in Discoverers Class on World Book Day doing lots of fun activities. Our favourite was the book tasting that we did. We looked at 3 different texts and read only a couple of. pages. We then completed a mini review in our tasting menu about our thoughts about the book and if we would like to read the rest of the book. 

In PE this half term we are doing gymnastics in one of our sessions. This week we focused on balancing and doing a pencil jump using the apparatus. 

In DT this week we prepared some dippers then tasted different dips and dippers. We created a tally chart of our favourite ones then transferred the information onto a bar chart in maths. As a class our favourite dipper was tortilla chips and our favourite dip was hummus. In our next DT lesson we are going  to create a mood board and design our own hummus dip ready to make it. We can’t wait to make our own hummus dip and hope that it tastes as good as the one we tried today.

In maths this week we have been looking at block graphs we started this off by making a human graph of our favourite fruits. We then put cones onto the large floor graph and interpreted the data.

In DT this week we have been learning about where our food comes from. We then looked at the different parts of a plant that we can eat.

In science this week we have been learning about friction. We conducted an experiment to see how far a toy car could travel on different surfaces.

Boxercise

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In PE we have been doing circuit training and boxercise. Have a look at our boxercise routine so far. Keep looking out for our finished routine. The children have loved using the boxing gloves and learning the different boxing punches. So far we have done an uppercut, a jab and now we are working on the hook.

We have been using our new world map in the corridor to locate the 7 continents and 5 oceans.

In DT we have been looking at seasonal fruit and vegetables. We then made our own fruit kebabs using seasonal fruit. The children all said that they tasted amazing!

This half term our school value is perseverance Today we discussed what perseverance was and ways that we can show it. We then played a game where the children worked with a partner. One of them had an empty cup and the other had ten mini marshmallows. The one with the marshmallows had to throw them underarm one at a time to the partner with the cup. The goal was for the children to catch them without dropping any. During the activity the children were encouraging each other and themselves and had to think of strategies to help them achieve their goal. They also were really good at celebrating each other’s successes. They found the task extremely hard but none of them gave up showing great perseverance. 

Discoverers class were delighted to see Father Christmas today. They all gave him a letter and received a present.

It was great to see all of the class in their Christmas jumpers today

The children are enjoying reading Christmas books at the moment in our Story Shed

When we came into the classroom this morning we found the polar bears from our display were all frozen. They had left us a message asking us to help them. We decided that we needed to free them quickly and safely. We discussed that by heating up the ice we would be able to melt it and turn the solid ice into a liquid. We discussed what things would heat the ice up safely. In our groups we decided to try 5 different things. We used a hairdryer, the radiator, a hot water bottle, a towel and a blanket. To measure how much the ice had melted we weighed the ice blocks at 10 minute intervals. We found out that the hairdryer was the quickest method of raising the temperature of the ice so that it would melt and free the polar bears. We had lots of fun completing this experiment and recording our results.

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The year 3 children have been learning this greetings song in French.

This week we conducted a science experiment to see how polar bears keep warm. We made blubber gloves and tested how a hand in a the blubber glove felt in comparison to the hand without in iced water. To make the test fair we put both hands into the iced water for the same amount of time. We found out that the thick layer of fat called blubber acts as an insulator to keep the polar bears warm.

Our Harvest Poem

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Discoverers Class welcomed their parents for a Class Assembly this week

In science we have been learning all about rocks and soils. We made the 3 types of rock - Sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks using Starburst. 

As part of our Stone Age history lesson we cooked the fish we had caught with our harpoons on the open fire.

We had a special visitor today who helped us all to make our whole school display of our school values in the new school entrance.

In music we have been playing the African Drums to a Stone Age version ‘We Will Rock You’.

Welcome to Discoverers’ Class Team

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Welcome to Discoverers’ Class

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We have stated to learn the Hakka. This is a sneak preview of what we have done so far.

This week Discoverer’s Class went back in time to the Stone Age. We went to the woods and became hunters and gatherers. The children made pitfall and deadfall traps to catch animal, they made their own harpoons, then they caught their own fish in the stream. We had a fantastic time and can’t wait to cook our fish on the open camp fire next week in forest school.

After reading the book Stone Age Boy we created some freeze frames of various parts in the story.

Discoverers’ Class were set the challenge of getting the hoop around their circle without letting go of each other’s hands. They came up with some great ways of moving the hoop from person to person.

As a team building exercise we made marshmallow and spaghetti towers. They raced against time in their teams to build the tallest tower. The children worked extremely hard in their groups and showed great perseverance. They created some amazing towers.

Please find attached below the homework grid for this half term.  This grid will also be posted on Showbie.  I have emailed all parents with our new class code for accessing Showbie.  If anyone has any difficulties please do not hesitate to contact me. If you would like a paper copy of the grid please ask your child to request one from me.

Wow! What a fantastic first week we have had in Discoverers Class.  It has been lovely to welcome the children old and new into our brand new classroom.  We have done lots of team challenges this week and getting to know each other activities.  I have been really impressed with how well all of the children have settled back into school.

 

I have attached below a welcome letter for all the parents of children in Discoverers Class.  This will tell you a little bit about what we will be doing this half term and a bit about me.  Our PE days are on Tuesday and Thursday and the children can come into school in their PE kits on these days.  The children will also be doing forest school every Wednesday so please can you ensure that your child has a pair or wellies in school labelled with their names.  Please can I also ask that you label all of your child's uniforms and PE kits with their names as we have already had a few left in the classroom with no name in.  This makes it a lot easier for your child to locate their own things.

 

Thank you 

 

Mrs Howarthsmiley

Welcome Discoverers

 

I hope that you have all had a lovely summer and are ready for the exciting things we have planned for this year. Our new classroom is finally ready. I have attached a couple of photographs of our new story shed and the other areas in the room. I can’t wait to welcome you all and hear your laughter and see your smiles making the room come alive.

 

Mrs Howarth

As part of us looking at local history we went to Tandle Hill. It was lovely to be able to go out and about again even in the rain. We has a fantastic time looking at the monuments at the top of Tandle Hill and could see our school and church clearly. We even marched around the Peterloo plaque in memory of the radicals that met there in 1819 prior to the Peterloo demonstrations.

After learning all about the Great Fire of London in history we made our own human chain to put out a chalk fire on the wall. We soon realised that this was very slow and would have been very tiring. We are thankful that we now have the fire brigade and fully equipped fire engines to put out fires.

We have been working on mass this week in maths

We have been doing lots of preparation for sports day with Explorers Class

Today in maths the children in Discoverer’s class were set a crime solving case by Greater Manchester Police. Over the weekend an unidentified intruder  stole one of the diggers from the school grounds. They sent us artist impressions of their suspects and because the police computers systems had failed the only way to uncover the identity of the thief was to solve fraction problems and use a top secret code. The children were amazing at solving the calculations and eliminating all the suspects until they were left with the culprit. At 2pm sharp the Deputy Police constable arrived at St John’s to collect all of our information. We have been informed since that Eric has been arrested and is currently awaiting sentencing! We were congratulated on our fast investigation and mathematical skills as have been honoured with a good citizens award and an extra playtime😀👮‍♀️🏅

We had a green screen session today which was amazing we visited lots of countries and even got to film one of our songs from our upcoming performance. Watch this space...

After reading the story Paper Dolls we made our own paper dolls. We gave them names and took them on an adventure around the school before writing our own version of the story.

During science week we have been learning all about how our lungs work

We have had great fun today on Number Day. This morning we worked on our sense of number and number facts. Then in the afternoon we used the map out of out literacy book - Harry and the Jaggedy Daggers to plot and locate the coordinates of the people and places in Bottlenose Bay. We ended the day with a game of Who Wants to be a Millionaire and won the Million!! We are now wondering what to spend it on.

In history this week we revisited Rosa Parks during the lesson we acted out what happened on the bus.

Listen to our Easter song all about lovely chocolate

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In literacy we are doing persuasive writing: we learnt an example persuasive leaflet in preparation for making a leaflet next week to persuade visitors to visit London landmarks

Since we came back to school we have been doing well being through sport in one of our PE sessions with one of the Ed-start coaches. We play lots of games that explore different emotions.

We have had a great day today. We transformed our classroom into a cinema and watched our shadow puppet performances: everyone was really impressed with each other’s performances. We even enjoyed a few treats too!

In maths on Monday we were real smarties! We used smarties to tally and create graphs.

Welcome Back

 

Welcome back to school Discoverer’s class. I can’t wait for us all to be back in class together again. Due to the building work our classroom looks a bit different but me and Mrs shill spent all day Friday cleaning up the dust and getting things ready in our cosy classroom. PE will now be on a Monday and Thursday so you will need to come in your PE kits on these days. Please also bring all reading books and homework books if they are at home in so that we can update them.

 

See you all on Monday

 

Mrs Howarth

Discoverer’s shadow puppet theatre performances

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Linked to our science lessons we have been designing and making our very own shadow puppet theatres. We then made our own puppet characters and performed our own versions of traditional tales or our own stories. I think you will agree with me that the performances are amazing. With theatres closed at the moment sit back and get your opcorn at the ready and enjoy the show.

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Welcome Back!

 

I hope you have all had a lovely half-term and are well rested.  I am looking forward to seeing you all on zoom on Monday morning.  I have attached below this weeks learning grid.  This is also on showbie with all of your work.  I have been super impressed with all of the work that is being sent in and the work from the children in school.  Hopefully we will all be back in the classroom again together in a couple of weeks. so lets stay positive and we will get through the next couple of weeks just as we did last term.

 

See you on Zoom smiley

As I said on the zoom this morning I am incredibly proud of all of you for all of your positivity and hard work this half term.  You have all produced some amazing work and kept smiling on all of our zoom calls.  I hope that you and your families have a lovely half-term spending time together and having a break from school work.  I have put a grid of some activities that you can do over half term on showbie in a new folder called half term activity grid.  I have also attached this below.  This is not school work but a few ideas of things that you can do if you are struggling to think of things whilst you are at home. Hopefully we will all be back in the classroom again very soon. I would also like to thank all of the parents/carers for your continued help and support the children are very lucky and I feel that as a school we are extremely lucky too to have such wonderful children and families.

 

Stay Safe

 

Mrs Howarthsmiley

Following on from our diamonte poems we then looked at a poem by Pie Corbett called 'Recipe for a wolf'.  We analysed the poem and then learned some of the stanzas to perform.  The children then were challenged with writing their own poems based on a recipe for another animal.  Have a look below at some of their fabulous poems.
As part of our work on 'Footprints in the Snow' the children all wrote diamante poems about wolves.  Diamonte poems are an unrhyming 7 lined poem that make the shape of a diamond.  The first and last line are only one word which is a noun, the second and sixth have 2 words which are adjectives, the third and fifth have three words which are verbs and the fourth line (which is the middle line has 4 words which are verbs. Have a look below at some of the poems the children wrote.
In science we have been learning all about light and shadows.  As an extension to this wok in DT we have been building our own shadow puppet theatres.  We have created the stage and some of the characters for our stories.  Have a look below at some of the amazing shadow puppet theatres.  Remember to look back after half term to watch some of the performances.

Find below this weeks remote learning grids. As usual refer to showbie for your lessons and for zoom links to live lessons.

Please find below this weeks remote learning grids. Lessons will be on showbie and links for our live lessons

Hi Discoverers

 

I hope that you are all safe and well.  We have had yet another fantastic week of home learning.  I have been blown away by the standard of work that you have all been sending me this week.  Your attendance on the zoom/live lessons is also outstanding.  I found it extremely hard to choose a remote learner of the week for each year group and school learner for the children still attending school.  This was due to the quality of work from all of you and your amazing attitude.  You should all give yourselves a big pat on the back.  I would also like to thank all of your parents for their continued support.  I understand how difficult it must be for lots of you trying to juggle home schooling with working.

 

I have attached below the weekly timetable grids for this week.  They are also on Showbie alongside all of their work and scheduled zooms for this week. I have also added some more pictures of some of the work from this week.   

 

 

Here are some of you doing PE activities this week

This week in DT we did some baking .  Everyone was challenged with making some biscuits/cookies with an animal theme based on one of the animals in our class book 'Footprints in the Snow' Below are some pictures of the children's creations.  I am sure that you will agree with me that they all look amazing! 

Library Movie (1).mp4

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This week in our History lesson as part of our remote learning and for the children in class, I asked the children to write an imaginary letter to the Prime Minister from Florence Nightingale ( in role as Florence Nightingale) describing the conditions in Scutari and asking him for help.

We had written an informal letter in literacy last week so I wanted the children to do this again but writing in a different subject .

Have a look at some of the letters that the children have written as well as fantastic video sent in by one of the children in role as Florence Nightingale. It is amazing!

I have also attached an example letter that I have written in role as Florence Nightingale but I have written to her parents. Remember you are not writing to her parents you are writing to the Prime Minister asking for things so that she can make the changes. Mine is just an example of a letter written from Florence Nightingale.
Well we did it we got through our first week of  full timetables learning,  I am extremely proud of all of you again.  I have received lots of amazing work from those children working at home this week and seen lots of great work in the classroom in school too.  I have attached this weeks timetables for you on here but as with last week everything for remote learning is on showbie.  Everyone is using showbie really well.  It was lovely to see all of you on our zoom lessons last week. I will send you links for our lessons on zoom this week. I am going to put some great examples of your learning in different subjects on here for you all to see. 

This week in art at home and in school we have been looking at the artist Megan Coyle. We created a piece of artwork using Megan Coyle’s “painting with paper” collage technique. The children based their collages on one of the characters from the book we are reading in class 'Footprints in the Snow' Can you find the animals in the collages?

Hello Discoverers. and welcome to the first week of timetabled learning.  I am extremely impressed with how well all of you have engaged with the learning on showbie last week.  You have all sent me some great pieces of artwork for the Lowry project you completed.  Well done navigating around the app and using the various features to complete and send me your work.

 

Below I have attached your timetable for next week.  There is one for year 2 and one for year 3. I appreciate that it can be difficult for parents who are working to get there children to complete all of the tasks on the set days so I have left the due date open for the end of the week.  Try as much as possible to stick to the timetable that Mrs Hunter sent out so that the day is well structured with rest breaks. Try also to do some exercise each day even if it is just going for a walk.  This is good for our minds as well as our bodies 

 

I have released the grids on showbie now so that you can have a look at them incase you have any questions. Each piece of work will be opened up for student editing on the day specified on the timetable. I have planned Phonics/Guided Reading, Maths, Writing and a Foundation Subject to complete each day.  There is also Heartsmart, Assembles (from Mrs Hunter), French (for year 3 only) and spellings for you to access .  If you look on the class discussion I have also put a login for Oxford Owl so that you can read your reading book at least three times per week.  Please also go on TT Rockstars as often as you can.


For Phonics, you only need to do the work if you are in Blue Group (Miss Ireland and Mrs Wales' group). If you are not in this phonics group please complete the guided reading activity for the day for your specific year group. Some year 3 children will complete the year 2 Guided Reading activity.  They should know who they are.  Any queries please ask and I can direct you to the correct one for your child.  

 

There are separate activities for maths for the year 2 and year 3 children.  Some children in year 3 will prefer to access the year 2 maths.  They know who they are.

 

Parents if you have any questions please do ask. You can either phone school and I will get back to you, email or put a message on your child's account on showbie. (only I can see the individual accounts.)
Good luck to you all next week and remember I am always here if you need anything.  I am hoping to set up a zoom for the Tuesday English lesson.  I will email the details for this and put the link on showbie in the discussions thread to join.

 

Good Luck and stay positive


Mrs Howarth😊

Good Morning Discoverers

 

This is a strange time for all of us and we will have to show great resilience and stay positive once again.  We have got through this once before and we will do it again.  The remote learning will look a bit different this time and we will be sticking to a timetable much like we do in school.  Most of the learning will go on the Showbie app, there will be some live sessions and I will post weekly timetables on here.

 

If you haven't already please can you download the Showbie app and create a log-in for yourself following the instructions that were emailed to parents yesterday.  All of the work for the next three days is on Showbie.  We will be completing an art project on LS Lowry that will give us all a chance to get to know how to use and navigate around Showbie - as this is new to me too!  On Monday a timetable will be posted on our class blog and all of the work including video input sessions will be on Showbie for you to complete each day.  I will then comment on the work you have completed.  Good Luck with your remote learning.  I am in school all day today with the key worker children so if you have any queries please don't hesitate to contact me.

 

Stay positive and keep smiling

 

Mrs Howarthsmiley

 

 

Remote learning welcome.MOV

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Good Morning.  I hope you are all well.  I will be touch tomorrow about the procedures for the next few weeks.  In the meantime please can you download the Showbie app if you have not already done so and then Sign up to showbie using the instructions below.  Some of the remote learning will be put on this platform for your child to access..

 

Sign Up with a Username

Tap on the button that says Sign Up for Free and you’re on your way to creating your own Showbie account.

  1. I’m a Student
  2. Sign Up with a Username; Signing Up with Google and Other Sign-up Options are a bit different (see below)
  3. Type in your account information and then tap Sign Up when you’re done. If your teacher gave you a class code already, type it in now and then tap Join Class. Don’t have a code yet? Just tap Skip and join a class later instead

Note: Remember that student accounts don’t need an email address. You can leave the Email field empty and still create an account.

Our class code is- APAZU

 

 

Merry Christmas

 

Wow we have all made it to the end of term!  I just wanted to say how proud I am of each and everyone of you.  You have all worked extremely hard this term and shown lots of resilience, determination and we have had lots of fun along the way.

 

Below is a video of our class performance of a Christmas poem that was was written by one of our very own Discoverers - Elouise.  I think you will agree with me that it is a fantastic poem.  It is both funny and heartfelt and the children though it said everything that they wanted to say.

 

I hope that you and your families have a lovely Christmas and New Year.  Stay safe and enjoy yourselves,  you all deserve it.  I look forward to seeing you all back in class in January.

 

PS I hope your turkey left over sandwiches are not TOO DISTUSTING!!!

 

Love Mrs Howarth

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We all wore red today for remembrance as a mark of respect and to raise money for those who have lost their lives in wars and those whose lives have been affected by war.

New Homework Grid, this weeks spellings and the Ed-Start November PE planner

In science we conducted an experiment to see what type of crisps contained the most fat.  We looked at Baked, Kettle and Classic ready salted crisps.  We placed the crisps in the centre of a squared piece of paper then used a rolling pin, placed on top of some grease proof paper to flatten the crisps out.  When we removed the grease proof paper we looked at how many squares were translucent as this showed the amount of grease from the crisps.  We found out that the Classic crisps contained the most fat, followed by the Kettle chips and that the Baked  contained the least amount of fat with only a few squared covered in grease.

 

The next day we tasted the crisps to see if the amount of fat in the crisps made affected the flavour.  Dis the crisps with the most fat in taste better than the ones with less fat.  There was a mixed opinion in the class as some children preferred the crisps with less fat whilst others liked the taste of the Baked crisps better.  It was also interesting to see that the Baked crisps had far more ingredients than the other two types of crisps that only contained potatoes, sunflower oil and salt.  We all loved doing this experiment, especially the taste test at the end. 

Healthy Habanera

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This week me have been learning this song for our Harvest celebrations. It also fits in well with our science topic this term all about healthy eating.
Over the last two weeks in art we have been looking at the Renaissance period.  This week we ek for our artist spotlight we focused on the work of Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci used silhouettes to look at how bodies moved. We  then created a some silhouettes  showing how a body moves using the wooden manikins to help position the body. We sketched the outline only  not adding  add facial features or other details.  The children loved using the wooden manikins  and produced some fantastic sketches.
This week in history we have been learning all about Rosa Parks, the woman whose defiance sparked a revolution, changing the lives of millions of people by refusing to give up her seat on the bus.  An act that became a crucial moment in the fight for equal rights.  To start off this lesson and to give the children a feel of how unjust the system was in America at time the children were told that only the children with brown eyes were allowed to play out at playtime.  The children without brown eyes were told that they had to stay in and work in the classroom.  This of course did not go down well and the children in the classroom were very soon telling me how unfair this was and that they were very disappointed, upset, mad and felt that they were being treated very badly as they couldn't help the colour of their eyes.  The children outside were very happy and felt superior to the children in the classroom although some said that they missed playing with their friends.  The children were allowed to go out to play at a different time so that they didn't miss out on their playtime but the segregation lead to some fantastic discussion in the classroom.  
Today is World Mental Health Awareness Day and I would just like the children in my class to remind themselves how amazing you are.  Elouise also very kindly gave all of the children in Discoverers class a special gift tag on Friday with a beautiful message attached. We have been doing lots of work in science about being Healthy this week and talked about being healthy isn't just about what you eat it is about what you are thinking and feeling too.  

On Monday when we came into Discoverer's classroom we found that some strange things had been happening. There was broken biscuits, rolling pins, juggling balls and bun cases everywhere. There was also some words written on the desks in icing. We think that it must have been biscuit bear! Watch this space as our investigation unfolds. This week we will be putting our detective hats on and writing some witness statements all about this mysterious visit.

This week we made our own 'Biscuit Bears' they tasted lovely! The children have also written instructions on 'How to make Biscuit Bears'

Over the last two weeks our art topic has been 'In the Jungle' we have looked at the artist Henri Rousseau who actually never visited the jungle he just took his inspiration from his imagination, visiting the zoo and botanical gardens and also from house plants. Have a look at some of the collages we made, creating a jungle background using paper and materials printed with different patterns in browns and greens to create trees and blues for water. We have also painted Rousseau style paintings by layering - painting the background first, then trees and plants.

Please find attached this terms homework grid and an information letter for parents about the homework expectations in Discoverer's Class

Please find below a copy of the letter that I have emailed to all parents.

One of the books we have read this week in class is  'Silly Billy'. The book is about a boy called Billy who worries about everything, from shoes that might march out the window to giant birds that might carry him away. One night on a visit to Grandma's, Billy is so anxious that he can't sleep. But Grandma has just the thing for a boy like Billy — tiny, colorful worry dolls, made to do his worrying for him. That night when Billy puts the dolls under his pillow, he sleeps like a log.Worry Dolls are tiny, hand-crafted dolls from Guatemala. The indigenous people from the Highlands in Guatemala created Worry Dolls many generations ago as a remedy for worrying. According to the Mayan legend, when worrying keeps a person awake, he or she tells a worry to as many dolls as necessary. Then the worrier places the dolls under his or her pillow. The dolls take over the worrying for the person who then sleeps peacefully through the night. When morning breaks, the person awakens without the worries that the dolls took away during the night.  After reading the story we made our own Worry Dolls. Lots of the children have said that they have placed their worry dolls under their pillows to take away any worries that they might have.
Over the next 2 weeks in school we are focusing on developing healthy minds through lots of wonderful picture books. Our assemblies and lessons for the first two weeks will focus on these books which will help us to think about our thoughts, our busy minds, our feelings and how to deal with our emotions when we are feeling worried, sad, cross or anxious! As you do not have the books at home we have shared the links below so you can listen as someone reads it to you. Listen carefully to the words in the books and enjoy the lovely illustrations. I have attached below a grid with the activities we will be doing for each of the books.  We will be looking at one book over 2 two days and focusing our learning around the book.  If you are at home at the moment isolating you can complete the activities that we are doing in school at home.  I will also attach the templates we are using for some of the activities in class for you to use at home.  We will be starting off with the book 'Silly Billy'.

The Spaghetti and Marshmallow Challenge!

 

The children were set a task in groups to make the tallest tower they could only using spaghetti and marshmallows that would stand up on its own.  This proved to be an very tricky and sticky task!  The children came up with lots of very different ideas for their towers.  The winning team produced a well thought out structure and worked extremely well together as a team.  Proving that Together Everyone Achieves More.

Fruity Friday!

 

As part of our knew science topic this term about being healthy each Friday will be 'Fruity Friday' in Discoverer's Class.  We will be tasting a new fruit each week that the children perhaps haven't tried before.  This week we tried a Mango.  The children had to use their 5 senses to come up with adjectives to describe the mango.  Here are some of the adjectives they came up with: firm, tangy, sweet, juicy, fizzy, squishy, green,orange, round,smooth.  I was extremely impressed that all the children tried the mango and that nearly all of them said that they really enjoyed it and would love to eat a full one again.  Look out next week for our next taste sensation!

 

 

Welcome Back Discoverers' Class!

 

I hope you have all had a fantastic summer and that you are looking forward to being back at school.  I certainly am as we have a very exciting term ahead full of lots of fun activities! Mrs Hill and myself have been busy getting our classroom all ready for you.  I am excited to see the year 3 children that were already in Discoverer's class and welcoming the new year 2 children into our class.  We also have two new year 3 children to welcome into our class.  Over the next two days we will be going through any changes and getting to know each other again as it has been a long time since we were all in school together.  I know that lots of you might be a bit worried about coming back to school (me and Mrs Hill are also a bit nervous), so for the first 2 weeks we will be reading some book all about ur emotions and doing lots of fun activities based on them that will help us all to deal with some of these worries or other feelings we might have at the moment or have had during this strange period in our lives. 

 

I will be meeting you at the main gate in the mornings as this where your parents will be dropping you off and picking you up.  Other classes will be using different entrances. School will look a little bit  different as the new building work has started. I can't wait for the the transformations especially what is planned for our new classroom.

 

See you all very soon

 

Mrs Howarthsmiley

Over the summer you should have received the postcard below from me.  If for some reason you haven't received it I have put a copy on here so that you can complete the tasks I have set,  I am looking forward to looking at your phoyographs/pictues this week and next and using the pebbles alongside the emotions books we will be reading.

A short message from Mrs. Howarth to Discoverer's Class

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To Discoverer's Class old and new

 

Words can not express how much I have missed seeing all of you together in our classroom each day. I realise this drastic change wasn’t easy, but I am extremely proud of all of you and what you have been doing at home.  I hope you have been able to spend more time with your family and have enjoyed not having to set your alarms every day!

 

All of you have impressed me more than you will ever know. I am proud of your flexibility, positivity and resilience during these crazy times. Although this wasn’t the ending we were expecting those children moving up to year 4 please know that I will miss you immensely and please pop your heads in to see me as you progress through the school.

 

I am looking forward to teaching the current year 2’s in year 3 next year and welcoming the current Year 1 children into Discoverer’s class.  Myself and Mrs Hill (who will be your TA next year) have lots of exciting things planned.

 

Hooray the summer holidays are here.  What exciting things will you do over the summer? I have attached a grid of summer activities for you to do over the holidays.  Those in my class next year look out for something through your doors with a summer challenge that I would like you to do before we come back to school. l will continue to miss you over the next six weeks. I hope you and your families all have a wonderful summer! You deserve it! I am looking forward to seeing you in September.

 

Love Mrs Howarthsmileyheart

Can you guess the member of St. John's staff from their baby photographs? Check your answers to see if you guessed right towards the end of the power point! GOOD LUCK and NO CHEATING!!

Some fantastic work that has been sent in over the last 2 weeks. It is great to see all of the things you have been doing. Please keep sending them in as they always put a smile on my face.

Take a look at some of last weeks home learning.

I have loved receiving all of your letters and emails this week they have really cheered me up. If you haven't sent one yet please do. Here are some of them.

Some of the 'Great Discoverer's Bake-Off' delicious creations that I have been sent so far. Keep checking here for more being added as I receive more. Who will get a Hollywood handshake?

Hi Discoverer's 

 

I am sorry that I am late writing to you all this week but I was busy in school at the beginning of the week.  On Friday and Monday we were all getting everything ready for more children coming back to school.  One of my jobs was painting lines 2 metres apart on the playground for lining up and at the school gates for drop off and pick-up just like there is at the supermarkets,  I ended up with paint all over me and Mrs Hill (who was measuring for me) forgot and stood in the paint which was very funny!!  The classrooms also look very different and we are now in our own 'Bubbles'.  On Tuesday more keyworker children came back to school and hopefully  some children from Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 will be joining us soon too.  I am hoping that I will get chance to see you too before the summer holidays.  It was lovely to see Lucinda and her mum on Friday on my way to school walking her dog.  I have also received lots of e-mails from you all this week which was lovely.  If you haven't sent an e-mail,postcard or letter yet please do.

 

Keep up the baking I have had some great pictures of your amazing creations this week.  They look delicious!! We have been baking again this week too.  We made chocolate chip cookies and raspberry ripple buns.  We have also had lots of BBQ's and made the most of the fantastic weather we have been having.

 

I hope you are all keeping well and safe and remember to send me pictures of what you have been doing at home.  Take a look below at what some of you have been up to this week.

 

Love  Mrs Howarth xx

Happy Birthday Anya! Wow 'Anya Fest' looks amazing you look like you had lots of fun. Please can I have an invite next year?

I have loved seeing some of your science experiments. Keep up the good work!

It is great to see you having fun in the sun aswell as completing your home learning

READING CHALLENGE - It is great to see you all reading and I love the different places that you have found to read. Keep checking here for more photos as I will add others to this slideshow as I receive them.

Hello again Discoverers

 

I hope you are all still well and keeping safe.  Well this week should have been half term and I'm sure that many of you had lots of plans for things to do with your families or perhaps going on holiday.  We should have been in New York this week.  Mr Howarth should have been working over there and me and the girls were joining him for the week and going to stay with his brother and family who live over there.  Hopefully the sun will shine this week and we can all enjoy doing lots of activities outside.  

 

I was in school for some of the time this week and we were still at Boarshaw.  However, we are moving back to St John's this week so that we can prepare for more children returning over the next few weeks. I am really missing seeing your smiley faces in the morning, hearing you laughter filling our classroom and hearing all about what you have been up to when you rush to my desk in a morning to tell me your news.  

 

I have loved all the pictures you have sent me this week of your home learning. I have also been amazed by some of the pictures that you have sent in of your baking for our 'GREAT DISCOVERER'S BAKE OFF'.  Please keep sending these in -  you never know you may even get a 'Hollywood Handshake' and there will be a prize at the end for the best entry.  We have been busy baking again at the Howarth household (well Isabel and Marisa have I am not allowed in the kitchen anymore until they unveil their latest creations which I have to say always taste delicious!)  This week we have had salted caramel cupcakes. It was also my Uncle Frank's 85th Birthday so the girls made him a very special birthday cake which he loved.

 

I hope you all have a lovely Bank holiday weekend and keep sending in your pictures so that I can see what you have all been doing. 

 

Love 

 

Mrs Howarthsmiley

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is lovely to see some of the work you have been doing and some of the other things you have been up to last week.

Hello again Discoverer's

 

I hope you have all had a good week.  I have loved seeing all of the pictures that you have sent in of things you have been up to at home.  I especially loved seeing the science experiments that some of you have done and the pictures of you reading in different places.  Please keep sending these in and check on the slideshow under the heading reading challenge on our page for your pictures. 

 

This week is  Mental Health Awareness week and the theme is kindness.  I think that at the moment it is essential that we look out for each other and show little acts of kindness to make sure that people are ok and coping with the situation.  I have attached a similar RE activity all about kindness to the one we did last week on courage.  I hope that lots of you try some of these activities.

 

I was in school last week at Boarshaw with the children from our school that are still attending.  We did lots of fun things and even decorated some cakes making our own multi-coloured butter cream with an electric mixer.  

 

Whilst I have been in school my daughters have still been baking.  Infact the cakes they made this week were the best yet.  They made some butterfly buns with jam and cream in them and then they tried a new recipe for 'Blueberry cheesecake cupcakes' which were delicious! I have put some pictures of them below.

 

All of this baking and seeing all the things you have been making at home made me think that we should have our very own 'Great Discoverer's Bake Off'  All you have to do is send in a picture of the things you bake at home by Monday 1st June.  You may even be lucky enough to get a  Hollywood Handshake!

 

Happy Baking

 

Mrs Howarthsmiley

 

 

Who will be the first to get a 'Hollywood Handshake'?

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